Three Russian servicemen killed and Two Injured In Abkhazia

Three Russian servicemen were killed and two others were injured when a BTR-80 armored personnel carrier overturned in a gorge in Abkhazia, a Russian-backed breakaway region of Georgia.

The injured servicemen have been evacuated by Mi-8 helicopter to the nearest military hospital. Their condition is currently unknown.

“On January 18, 2019 a BTR-80 armored vehicle capsized and slid into the gorge as a convoy of armored vehicles was on the way to base in the Republic of Abkhazia. The incident occurred on a difficult road. As a result of the incident three servicemen were killed. The two injured were promptly airlifted to the district military hospital by special ambulance helicopters Mi-8. All were given medical assistance,” the news release says.

A source in Abkhazia’s law enforcement has told TASS the armored vehicle carrying five servicemen fell from an altitude of about 40 meters. Rescue workers of Abkhazia’s Emergencies Ministry promptly arrived at the scene of the incident to recover the bodies and survivors.

“One of those killed was from the Chelyabinsk Region,” the region’s military commissariat told

According to local media, the military district commission is considering several versions of what happened. So, the cause of the accident could be a technical malfunction and that the driver lost control of the BTR-80 armored personnel carrier.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia in wars in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Georgia and Russia fought a short war over the regions in August 2008 and Moscow, whose forces triumphed, recognized both as independent countries